Reduce Sulfur Dioxide Emissions Research Articles

ENHANCING AIR POLLUTION CONTROL WITH MACHINE LEARNING IN THE AUTOMATION FIELD

The integration of machine learning with real-time data collection offers a transformative approach to optimizing pollution control strategies. This study explores the application of these advanced technologies in various environments, including urban, industrial, coastal, and rural areas. Using predictive machine learning models, significant reductions in pollutants such as PM2.5, SO2, NOx, VOCs, PM10, and NH3 were achieved through targeted and timely interventions. In urban areas, air quality improved notably due to proactive measures informed by high-accuracy predictions. Industrial areas saw a 20% reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions, while coastal areas effectively managed volatile organic compounds. In rural areas, optimizing agricultural practices led to substantial decreases in particulate matter and ammonia emissions. These findings validate the efficacy of machine learning in enhancing pollution control efforts, highlighting its potential to revolutionize air quality management. This study underscores the importance of continued investment in advanced, data-driven approaches to address the growing challenge of air pollution, advocating for more sophisticated, adaptive, and effective strategies to protect public health and the environment.

Exploring the Mechanisms of Regional Environmental Collaborative Legislation in China: Policy Effectiveness, Practical Challenges, and Policy Suggestions

The legislation for regional environmental collaboration is of significant importance in enhancing the effectiveness of environmental protection. The existing literature focuses on the power struggle between central and local governments regarding environmental regulation within the realm of regional environmental governance, lacking an examination of the collaborative governance mechanisms and their effectiveness. Therefore, this study takes China’s regional environmental collaborative legislation as its research object. It employs a difference-in-differences model to test the effectiveness of regional environmental collaborative legislation concerning environmental governance and conducts a qualitative analysis to examine the current practical challenges facing regional environmental collaborative legislation. The quantitative analysis results indicate that regional environmental collaborative legislation can effectively suppress the emission of environmental pollutants. Specifically, the implementation of regional environmental collaborative legislation results in a 19.7% reduction in prefecture-level wastewater emissions and a 26.6% reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions. Qualitative analysis results show that regional environmental collaborative legislation currently faces challenges such as localism, difficulties in legislative authority allocation, and a lack of cooperation mechanisms. Therefore, this paper proposes to establish a collaboration platform, balance the interests of stakeholders, and improve the allocation mechanism of environmental regulatory powers in order to better optimize the regional environmental collaborative legislation and enhance the government’s environmental governance capacity.

Does ecological economic zone policy affect pollutant emission: Evidence from a case study of Dongting Lake

Environmental pollution affects human health, reduces work motivation, and addressing environmental pollution is a common challenge faced by the world. The Chinese government has recently implemented a new environmental policy - the national-level ecological economic zone - to develop a green economy and reduce environmental pollution. This study utilizes the difference-in-difference method to analyze the impact of the Dongting Lake ecological economic zone on environmental pollution. The results show that: policy led to a 68 % reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions. This impact was more pronounced in economically developed areas, regions with a high concentration of foreign-invested, and areas with greater economic openness. Mechanism tests indicate that the policy reduces environmental pollution by promoting technological progress. Robustness checks show that the policy also resulted in a 37 % reduction in industrial wastewater emissions. The results offer new insights to advance the development of the ecological economic zone more effectively. The ecological economic zone should focus on enhancing technological advancement and green total factor productivity to amplify the policy's positive effects.

Impact of Biomass Fuel Feeding Ratio in Co-firing Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler: A Computational Fluid Dynamics Study

Nowadays, our global population is on a notable rise, coupled with an annual surge in energy consumption. The prevailing reliance on fossil fuels, especially in electricity generation, has significantly contributed to environmental pollution and exacerbated global warming. The circulating fluidized bed, distinguished for its continuous operation and effective heat transfer in the combustion chamber, emerges as a prominent boiler type. Furthermore, the use of biomass fuel, recognized for its renewable and environmentally friendly characteristics, presents an attractive option. Hence, exploring a co-firing system incorporating both coal and biomass as fuel feeds for the boiler holds promise, necessitating optimization for efficient energy production and reduced gas emissions. This study employs computational fluid dynamics to simulate the intricate interactions of solid fuel and flue gas reactions within the boiler, utilizing the two-fluid method for multiphase flow simulation. The circulating fluidized bed boiler in focus employs subbituminous coal, woodchips as biomass sources, and sand as the bed material. Model validation against operational data, including bed temperature, flue gas velocity outlet, and carbon dioxide mass fraction, indicates minimal deviation. Examination of the biomass ratio's impact on fuel feed reveals a reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions with an increasing biomass ratio, attributed to the lower sulfur content in woodchips compared to coal. However, a heightened woodchip blending ratio results in diminished boiler efficiency due to the altered heating value of the mixed solid fuel. The optimized biomass-to-coal ratio in fuel feeding is determined as 59.15%, achieving a maximized boiler efficiency of 82.84% and minimized pollution gas emissions of sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide in accordance with industrial standards.

Marine Fuel Regulations and Engine Emissions: Impacts on Physicochemical Properties, Cloud Activity and Emission Factors

AbstractMarine regulations aim to reduce sulfur and nitrogen exhaust emissions from maritime shipping. Here, two compliance pathways for reducing sulfur dioxide emissions, fuel sulfur content reduction and exhaust wet scrubbing, are studied for their effects on physicochemical properties and cloud forming abilities of engine exhaust particles. A test‐bed diesel engine was utilized to study fresh exhaust emissions from combustion of non‐compliant, high sulfur content fuel with (WS) and without (HiS) the usage of a wet scrubber as well as a regulatory compliant, low sulfur content fuel (LoS). Particle number emissions are decreased by ≈99% when switching to LoS due to absence of 20–30 nm sulfate rich particles. While number emissions for WS are also decreased, a shift in the sulfate mode toward larger sizes was found to increase particle mass emission factors by at least 31%. Changes in the mixing state induced by the compliance measures are reflected in the hygroscopicity of the exhaust particles. Fuel sulfur reduction decreased cloud condensation nuclei emissions by at least 97% due to emissions of primarily hydrophobic soot particles. Wet scrubbing increased those emissions, mainly driven by changes in particle size distributions. Our results indicate that both compliance alternatives have no obvious impact on the ice forming abilities of 200 nm exhaust particles. These detailed results are relevant for atmospheric processes and might be useful input parameters for cloud‐resolving models to investigate ship aerosol‐cloud interactions and to quantify the impact of shipping on radiative budgets from local to global scales.

Synergistic reduction of SO2 emissions while co-firing biomass with coal in pilot-scale (1.5 MWth) and full-scale (471 MWe) combustors

The objective of this study was to understand the synergistic effect of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission reduction during the combustion of biomass-coal blends in comparison to pure coal by recording the gaseous SO2 concentrations, analyzing the composition of combustion ash by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), and simulating and verifying the fate of sulfur by a thermodynamic equilibrium software (FactSage). In Set A experiments, five combinations of coal and steam-exploded biomass (100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, 0/100 in percentages by mass) were co-fired in a 1.5 MWth pilot-scale combustor. In Set B, pure coal (100/0) and an 85/15 percent mass blend of coal and torrefied biomass were co-fired in a 471 MWe utility boiler. Woody biomass contains lower amounts of sulfur compared to coal and the linear lowering of SO2 emissions as a result of co-firing is called the dilution effect. For Set A tests, FactSage predicted, and ash analysis confirmed that calcium was primarily responsible for the synergistic emission reduction (beyond dilution effect) in all the blends, except in pure biomass, where potassium was responsible. During pure coal combustion, 41.1% of the sulfur in the system was absorbed in the ash, compared to 97.0% during pure biomass testing. In Set B tests, the 85/15 coal-biomass blend, showed a 28.1% reduction in SO2 emissions along with a 22.1% reduction in the lime slurry utilization at flue gas desulfurization (FGD) towers compared to pure coal, which is equivalent to saving 7.4 L of lime slurry per MWe-hour. The results suggest that blending woody biomass with coal can help coal-fired utility boilers meet environmental emission standards and reduce desulfurization costs. These results are important since the current literature is deficient in research conducted at suspension-fired full-scale boilers to reduce SO2 emissions by co-firing coal and biomass blends.

Does a mandatory cleaner production audit have a synergistic effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions?

The mandatory cleaner production audit (MCPA) is an important initiative to promote energy conservation, emission reduction and green transformation and upgrading of enterprises. This paper matches 16,841 enterprises that implemented MCPA between 2003 and 2012 to the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database and the Chinese Enterprise Pollution Emission Database. And carrying out the MCPA as a quasi-natural experiment, a difference-in-differences model based on propensity score matching is used to identify the net effect of it on the reduction of enterprise sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. The paper discovers that MCPA can significantly reduce the intensity of SO2 emissions, and this finding is robust to multiple scenarios. According to heterogeneity analysis, the MCPA is more conducive to reducing the intensity of SO2 emissions in domestic enterprises, enterprises with low financing constraints and heavily polluting industries. Mechanism tests show that MCPA can reduce SO2 emissions by optimising energy structure, increasing energy efficiency, and encouraging green process innovation. Further analysis reveals that the MCPA is an effective tool for achieving the synergistic effect of reducing SO2 and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in enterprises, and it serves the dual function of winning the pollution battle while also achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

Can Mergers and Acquisitions Promote Technological Innovation in the New Energy Industry? An Empirical Analysis Based on China’s Lithium Battery Industry

The advancement of technological capabilities within lithium battery enterprises crucially facilitates the high-quality development of the new energy industry. This study aims to empirically investigate the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on the technological innovation capacities of these enterprises, with a specific focus on the lithium battery sector in China. Utilizing data from 34 publicly listed companies spanning the period from 2012 to 2022, we employ the multi-period double-difference method for comprehensive analysis. Researchers have observed that the implementation of merger and acquisition (M&A) strategies by new energy companies leads to an approximately 1.5 percentage point increase in their technological innovation level. However, the improvement in the green technological innovation level is not significant. After a series of robustness tests, the aforementioned conclusion remains valid. Additionally, with the enhancement of firms’ knowledge absorption capacity and regional intellectual property protection, M&A activities can further promote technological innovation in new energy companies and contribute to the enhancement of green technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis has revealed that technological M&A crucially facilitates the improvement of technological innovation levels among listed companies in the lithium battery industry. Implementing M&A strategies not only benefits the enhancement of firms’ technological innovation levels but also significantly fosters green technological innovation. Furthermore, further research has indicated that changes in the level of green technological innovation after the implementation of M&A strategies by new energy companies facilitate the reduction of industrial wastewater and sulfur dioxide emissions. The main innovation of this study, which utilizes new energy companies as the research object, is as follows: it reveals the causal relationship and regulatory mechanism between M&A, technological innovation, and green technological innovation in new energy companies. Furthermore, the study analyzes the mechanism that promotes green technological innovation in new energy companies from the intellectual property protection perspective. Moreover, it assesses the heterogeneous impacts of changes in both technological innovation levels and green technological innovation levels on environmental governance after the implementation of M&A activities.

Regulations, politics, and firm green innovation

We examine impacts of environmental regulations and political incentives on firms’ green innovation. By exploiting a natural experiment on reduction of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in China, we show that the environmental regulation significantly enhances firms’ green innovations. For 1% increase in provincial SO2 reduction targets, there is average 1.77% (2.67%) increase in green patent amount (quality). A plausible mechanism driving our findings is that target-based performance evaluation in political promotion may properly motivate local bureaucrats to exert pressures on firms to implement environmentally friendly innovations. However, local bureaucrats’ political turnover and short-term pressures of economic growth negatively moderate our findings. Our findings are more pronounced to state-owned, non-financing constrained firms and firms under eastern provinces or SO2-filled industries.

“No fences make bad neighbors” but markets make better ones: cap-and-trade reduces cross-border SO2 in a natural experiment

The clean air interstate rule (CAIR) was a regional cap-and-trade program announced in 2005 which covered 27 eastern US states and sought to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. The rule was later vacated after a court found that the non-targeted design of the program did not comply with the Clean Air Act provision to regulate interstate air pollution. Using a custom air pollution dispersion model, I calculate the interstate SO2 pollution from 493 coal-fired power plants across the United States between 1997 and 2020. In a difference-in-differences setup with plants not covered by CAIR in the control group, I estimate the treatment effect of the program on overall- and cross-border SO2 emissions and find a 24% reduction in overall emissions and reduces the risk that a plant violates air quality standards across state borders by 2–4%. I report evidence of heterogeneous treatment effects where the reduction in overall emissions attributed to CAIR is lower among plants transporting SO2 in excess of 1% of the National Air Quality Standards to another state.

Effects of sulfur dioxide inhalation on human health: a review.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of the most important gaseous air pollutants and the chemical index of sulfur oxides (SOx). SO2 is one of the six criteria pollutants in the air quality index (AQI). SO2 can be emitted by natural and anthropogenic sources. Although efforts have been made to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions worldwide, this pollutant and its adverse effects remain a major concern, especially in developing countries. The aim of this study was the investigated the effects of sulfur dioxide inhalation on human health. This narrative review was done based on the literature published from 2000 to 2022 through PubMed, Springer, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases. In this study, was done screened first based on the abstract and Final assessment done based on the full text of the article. Finally, 38 articles were selected for inclusion in the study. The results of this study showed that sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on the human respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems and causes type 2 diabetes and non-accidental deaths. Although some evidence suggests that sulfur dioxide in given concentrations has no adverse health effect, its synergistic effects in combination with other air pollutants may be significant. Among the most important practical results of this study can be mentioned to increase the health awareness of the general public, help the politicians of the health sector in making decisions in the health field, creating awareness among polluting producing units and industries and efforts to reduce the emission of Sulfur dioxide.

Is there a stronger willingness to pay for air quality improvement with high education: new evidence from a survey in China.

As a developing country with the largest population and serious environmental pollution in the world, China has made great efforts in air pollution. Air quality improvement depends not only on government administrative regulations but also on public support, especially how much the public is willing to pay for air quality improvement. Higher education will encourage the public to take action to improve air quality. However, the confirmation of the causality relationship between WTP and education has been missing. This study uses the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to find the relationship between the two, and the conclusions are drawn: OLS regression model and instrumental variable both determine the positive influence of education level on air quality improvement WTP, and Heckman model further verifies the robustness of the conclusion. The positive influence of education level is greater in the groups of men, higher income, higher awareness of acid rain, and more air purifiers, and it has a greater impact on married people in rural areas than in urban areas. The function mechanism of education can improve residents' WTP by increasing regional GDP, promoting urbanization level, expanding afforestation areas, decreasing private car ownership and the number of newly registered civil cars, and reducing sulfur dioxide emissions, nitrogen oxides, and smoke (powder) dust. The total social and economic value of air quality improvement in China is 34.572 billion CNY to 672.42 trillion CNY.

Aerosol emissions from a marine diesel engine running on different fuels and effects of exhaust gas cleaning measures

The emissions of marine diesel engines have gained both global and regional attentions because of their impact on human health and climate change. To reduce ship emissions, the International Maritime Organization capped the fuel sulfur content of marine fuels. Consequently, either low-sulfur fuels or additional exhaust gas cleaning devices for the reduction in sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions became mandatory. Although a wet scrubber reduces the amount of SO2 significantly, there is still a need to consider the reduction in particle emissions directly.We present data on the particle removal efficiency of a scrubber regarding particle number and mass concentration with different marine fuel types, marine gas oil, and two heavy fuel oils (HFOs). An open-loop sulfur scrubber was installed in the exhaust line of a marine diesel test engine. Fine particulate matter was comprehensively characterized in terms of its physical and chemical properties. The wet scrubber led up to a 40% reduction in particle number, whereas a reduction in particle mass emissions was not generally determined. We observed a shift in the size distribution by the scrubber to larger particle diameters when the engine was operated on conventional HFOs.The reduction in particle number concentrations and shift in particle size were caused by the coagulation of soot particles and formation/growing of sulfur-containing particles. Combining the scrubber with a wet electrostatic precipitator as an additional abatement system showed a reduction in particle number and mass emission factors by >98%.Therefore, the application of a wet scrubber for the after-treatment of marine fuel oil combustion will reduce SO2 emissions, but it does not substantially affect the number and mass concentration of respirable particulate matters. To reduce particle emission, the scrubber should be combined with additional abatement systems.

Commercial Vehicles in Delhi: Diesel Demand and Sulphur Emission

The aim of this paper is to estimate the future growth of commercial vehicles (passenger vehicles and goods vehicles) and to project the subsequent increase in diesel demand and the level of sulphur dioxide emissions in Delhi. Using an S-curve growth model on the data set of auto rickshaws, taxis, buses, and goods vehicles from 1965-66 to 2005-06, a long-term trend in the growth of commercial vehicles is projected to the year 2020-21. By 2020-21, the number of commercial vehicles is expected to increase to 0.51 million, with an increase in the share of goods vehicles and a simultaneous decrease in the share of passenger vehicles. The growth of commercial vehicles will boost the demand for diesel in 2020-21 by 68 percent, thus resulting in a threefold increase in sulphur dioxide emissions. The conversion of goods vehicle engines from diesel to CNG (compressed natural gas) will reduce diesel demand and sulphur dioxide levels significantly. A reduction of sulphur content in diesel can further reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.

‘Best-scenic zone’ selection as a method of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions: A quasi-experiment in Chinese urban environmental governance

By treating the designation of “best-scenic zone” as an exogenous event for a natural experiment, we apply a difference-in-difference method to gauge the extent to which the designation of best-scenic zone can help alleviate the conflict caused by environmental protection and economic growth for local governments, increase the attention to environmental governance, and therefore reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide. Our results indicate a significant reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions in cities designated as best-scenic zone, especially in ones facing high public pressure. Our study enriches studies on environmental governance by guiding local governments on how to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental governance.

Modelling the influence of coral-reef-derived dimethylsulfide on the atmosphere of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Marine dimethylsulfide (DMS) is an important source of natural sulfur to the atmosphere, with potential implications for the Earth’s radiative balance. Coral reefs are important regional sources of DMS, yet their contribution is not accounted for in global DMS climatologies or in model simulations. This study accounts for coral-reef-derived DMS and investigates its influence on the atmosphere of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia, using the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator Atmospheric Model version 2 (ACCESS-AM2). A climatology of seawater surface DMS (DMSw) concentration in the GBR and an estimate of direct coral-to-air DMS flux during coral exposure to air at low tide are incorporated into the model, increasing DMS emissions from the GBR region by 0.02 Tg yr-1. Inclusion of coral-reef-derived DMS increased annual mean atmospheric DMS concentration over north-eastern Australia by 29%, contributing to an increase in gas-phase sulfate aerosol precursors of up to 18% over the GBR. The findings suggest that the GBR is an important regional source of atmospheric sulfur, with the potential to influence local-scale aerosol-cloud processes. However, no influence on sulfate aerosol mass or number concentration was detected, even with a reduction in anthropogenic sulfur dioxide emissions, indicating that DMS may not significantly influence the regional atmosphere at monthly, annual or large spatial scales. Further research is needed to improve the representation of coral-reef-derived DMS in climate models and determine its influence on local, sub-daily aerosol-cloud processes, for which observational studies suggest that DMS may play a more important role.

Does export product diversification reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in China? A regional analysis

Does export product diversification reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in China? A regional analysis

The role of economic development on the effectiveness of industrial pollution reduction policy in Chinese cities

The societal impact of industrial pollution produced by economic activities is a global concern. This paper presents a causal analytic framework to evaluate the effectiveness of government policy on the reduction of industrial pollutants in 284 Chinese cities between 2005 and 2016. This study reports on the interaction between industrial pollution reduction and the level of regional economic development from four dimensions by using analysis of variance (ANOVA),multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and a bootstrap autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) test. The results indicate that city government policies, economic power, the influence of megacities, and the geographical region of the cities have significant effects on industrial pollution, in particular, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission reduction and dust reduction. After taking account of the interaction effect of city government policies and the other three factors, it was found that economic power is the only factor to have a significant interaction with city government policies on industrial pollution reduction. The ARDL test found long-term causality among industrial pollution reduction, fixed assets investment, and GDP per-capita in city, urban agglomeration, and regional levels. This study sheds new light on the relationship between regional economic development and the development of sustainable societies.

Does Green Credit Policy Move the Industrial Firms Toward a Greener Future? Evidence From a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China

How to utilize financial instrument to deal with environmental issues has been a focal topic. Taking the introduction of green credit program as a “quasi-natural experiment,” the propensity score matching and difference-in-difference approach (PSM-DID) are used to investigate the impact of the green credit policy implemented by Chinese government on firm-level industrial pollutant emissions. The estimation results indicate that the green credit policy significantly reduces corporate sulfur dioxide emissions. Heterogeneity analysis shows this impact is more pronounced for large-scale enterprises and enterprises located in the eastern region. The estimated mediation models reveal that after the implementation of the green credit policy, reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions can be attribute to the increased environmental investment and improved energy consumption intensity. Moreover, the green credit policy is also significantly effective in mitigating the discharge of other common industrial pollutants. Our findings highlight the importance of green credit policies in achieving greener industrial production and more sustainable economic development.

Rapid Evaluation of the Effects of Policies Corresponding to Air Quality, Carbon Emissions and Energy Consumption: An Example from Shenzhen, China

Efficient environmental policies are necessary in the improvement of air quality and reduction in carbon emissions, and the interactions between policy, activity, emissions, and environment comprise a cycle allowing the evaluation of the effects of implemented policies. Based on the establishment of the connection between environmental parameters and policy context using a quantifiable methodology, in this study, we formulated a rapid and simplified pattern for the evaluation of the effects of policies concerning the atmospheric environment, and applied it to the evaluation and improvement of policies for Carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction and air quality enhancement in the sample city of Shenzhen. The Response Surface Model-Visualization and Analysis Tool (RSM-VAT) in the Air Benefit and Cost and Attainment Assessment System (ABaCAS) was applied as the core tool. The required reductions in Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions for 2014–2019 are expected to be achieved; however, the expected reductions in Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions (mainly from road mobile sources) and Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions (mainly from secondary industry and road mobile sources) are less certain. According to the simulated concentration of PM2.5 in 2019, it is necessary to reduce the concentrations of air pollutants, both within and outside Shenzhen. The background weather conditions may be the main reason for the increased concentrations of Ozone (O3) in October compared to those in July. Reductions in NOx and VOCs tend to be the main factors driving changes in O3 concentrations. Policies have been formulated and implemented in a wide array of areas. According to the quantitative comparative analysis of the policies, and the relevant activities, the greatest challenge in reducing NOx and VOCs emissions is presented by the oil-powered vehicles in the road mobile sector and organic solvent production in the secondary industry sector. Therefore, in an effort to achieve better air quality and ensure that CO2 emissions reach a peak in Shenzhen by 2025, we propose key improvements in policies based on interdisciplinary cooperation, involving not only atmospheric and environmental science, but also governance and urban planning.